Empirical Analysis of Resource-Use Conflicts Between Smallholder Farmers and Pastoralists in Semi-Arid Areas: A Case of Mkata Plains, Eastern Tanzania

Abstract

An empirical study was carried out in Mkata plains, eastern Tanzania in order to establish factors determining resource-use conflicts between smallholder farmers and pastoralists. PRA approaches and questionnaire survey were employed to collected data from two pastoral and two agro – pastoral villages. The main conflict types and their intensities include inter-ethnic conflicts> village vs village,> village vs state agencies> intra-ethnic group conflicts. The perceived causes of conflicts were crop damages by livestock, pastoralists disregarding village boundaries, overcharging compensation for crop damage by farmers, confiscating of livestock by farmers, ineptness of government officials to intervene to prevent conflicts. Key factors significantly enhancing resource-use conflicts were increasing herd size, market integration, and increase in household wealthy differentiation. A key factor likely to significantly minimize the conflicts was strong local leadership. The mechanism employed to resolving resource use-conflicts was formation of “conflict resolution committee” at village level. But, only agropastoral villages have formed full functional committees. It is recommended to build capacity of government officials to analyze and resolve resource-use conflicts; and to enhance capacity of local structures for conflict resolution.

Keywords: Semi-arid areas, Mkata plains, pastoralism, resource-use conflicts, conflict resolution.